A Fool In Love
by TopazSunshine
Summary: Her eyes were alluring and they made his mind spin out of control. –MarkChelsea


_AN:_

_Dedicated to MellowedSeeker, my beta._

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><p><em>A Fool In Love<em>

_(Her eyes were alluring and they made his mind spin out of control)_

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><p>Mark never believed in love at first sight.<p>

Until he met her.

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><p>They met on the first of day of autumn, right outside his chicken coop.<p>

It was already past eight in the morning, and Mark was trying to put his chickens out to graze before he went out to meet the villagers. Unfortunately, one of his chickens had decided to be extremely stubborn and refused to let him take her egg.

Thankfully, nearly no time passed when he was indoors, and he managed to pick up the chicken triumphantly. Sapphire settled onto his blue cap with a cluck and a contented sigh, while he pocketed the egg and left the coop.

That was when he nearly collided into her.

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><p>The first thing he registered was her blue eyes. They were bright and sparkling with merriment as she looked at him, and her lips curved into a friendly smile.<p>

Mark felt like a helpless fool as he stood in front of his chicken coop, with a chicken on his head, gaping at her.

Thankfully, to save him from his embarrassment, Sapphire pecked his blonde tuft of hair, and Mark came back to his senses.

Carefully putting the irritated chicken on the ground, he straightened up and offered his hand to her.

Her grin widened, and she took his hand eagerly, words spilling out of her mouth as she did so.

"You're the rancher here... Mark, was it? Oh, you have such a wonderful farm!"

He on the other hand, nearly went into cardiac arrest.

When her hand touched his, electricity tinged through his veins and he felt like he was skidding across a dream-filled fantasy. His heart was thumping so loudly that half of him feared that she could hear it, while the other half of him relished the touch of the brown-haired angel.

"Well, it was nice meeting you Mark! I'll see you around!"

As she turned to leave, he realized that she didn't give her name. Cupping his mouth he called out to her.

"What's your name?"

The angel turned and brushed her honey-brown locks away from her face, before directing her ocean-blue gaze at him. Once again, Mark's heart began to palpitate at such a speed that he was beginning to worry about his state of health.

He watched her rosebud lips part softly to answer his question, and her sweet sounding voice continued to play in his mind long after she left.

_"Chelsea."_

And poor Sapphire wondered what on earth was going on when she watched her deranged owner smile gleefully to himself long after the mysterious woman had left.

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><p>Mark soon learnt that Chelsea was envied by nearly every girl in the village.<p>

Of course, most of the girls were fawning and tripping over their feet at the sight of Mark coming out of his ranch, and they didn't look particularly happy that there was a new rival competing for Mark's love.

When Mark introduced Chelsea to the bachelorettes of Verdure Island, he could practically see the fleeting look of scorn on Natalie's face and the slight scowl appearing on Lanna's cheerful countenance.

"Thank you so much for this, Mark!"

Chelsea's cheerful attitude did little to lighten the somewhat awkward atmosphere, and she seemed to appear oblivious about the silent glowers that were sent her way.

Mark hastily took Chelsea to meet the other villagers before someone lost a limb.

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><p>"She's got pretty eyes."<p>

Mark stood next to his horse, absentmindedly brushing him repeatedly as he occupied himself with a flurry of daydreams.

Pearl snorted, and stamped a hoof on the ground. He was sick of staying cooped up in his stable, and desperately wanted Mark to bring him out for a graze. However, Mark firmly told him that it was the chickens turn to graze, and Pearl had kicked his owner into a haystack in annoyance.

"They're the prettiest eyes I have ever seen. They're like... those sapphires Sabrina collects_, _only better."

Mark continued babbling on about Chelsea's eyes as he brushed Pearl over and over, being completely oblivious to the horse's irritation.

A grin lit up on Mark's face as he pictured her blue eyes sparkling in the sunlight.

At the mere mention of her name, his heart would palpitate rapidly, and he would feel light-headed with happiness. Perhaps he was falling in love with her. Or maybe it was because of his depleting stamina bar. (After all, brushing your horse repeatedly in the hot weather was really energy-draining.)

Without noticing that his stamina bar was nearly drained, Mark ran his brush through Pearl's brown mane, before promptly fainting in exhaustion.

His dog, Rald, sighed and proceeded to drag his owner back to the house.

Pearl, on the other hand, made a dash for freedom out of the stable.

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><p>He joins Chelsea for lunch.<p>

Mark doesn't even recall how he managed to work up the courage to ask her.

He was too busy trying not to gape at the blue-eyed angel sitting across him. Instead, he diverted his attention to his half-finished tofu, all the while trying to calm the frenzied butterflies in his stomach.

"Are you alright?"

Her honey sweet words seemed to pierce the silent atmosphere, and he dragged his gaze upwards to meet her sapphire orbs.

She smiled and rested her own hand on his on the table, her ocean eyes never leaving him.

"Thanks for having lunch with me, Mark."

On the outside, Mark remained cool and composed, and gave his companion a smile.

However on the inside, Mark and the butterflies were doing a happy dance.

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><p>They took a walk on Meadow Island.<p>

He shyly took her hand, and they crossed the leaf-filled path that led them to Kirk's boat.

Around him, he could hear hushed whispers and curious stares from the passing villagers, and Mark tugged the brim of his hat down, trying to ignore the whistles and cheers being emitted from his friends.

Denny whistled and gave a yell of approval, and Elliot gave him a discreet thumbs-up. Even Will stopped to quote Shakespeare when he saw their locked hands.

Chelsea's fingers tightened around his wrist, and they broke into a run, leaving Denny's whoops and Pierre's cheers behind them in their wake.

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><p>Spring Harmony Day nearly sent him reeling into a state of hysteria.<p>

Mark normally picked out simple chocolate bars for all the bachelorettes on the island, but he wanted to give Chelsea something special.

Unfortunately, his frazzled mind nearly tempted him to entertain the thought of jumping into the volcano at Volcano Island because he couldn't decide on giving her white chocolate or dark chocolate.

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><p>He finally settled on giving her a chocolate cake.<p>

It took him all morning, but he finally made a decent slice of cake. Pleased with his success, he wrapped up the cake, and tied a bow around it rather lopsidedly.

Then with a yell of triumph, Mark carried his treasure and ran across his field, leaping over fallen logs and stones as he did so, the precious present carefully held in his grasp.

"He's lost it," Rald muttered to Blue —Mark's white cat—, as the pair sat outside Mark's tattered house. Blue purred in agreement, and the duo watched their insane owner cartwheel across Verdure Island in amusement.

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><p>He arrived around mid-morning, outside her room at the inn. His face flushed with excitement (or perhaps, exhaustion, since his crazy cartwheels had put Chen's aerobics to shame), and the parcel still neatly tucked in the crook of his elbow.<p>

Mark was glad that the innkeeper's desk was hidden behind the corridor that led to Chelsea's room. He would never live it down if Carol caught him standing outside Chelsea's door.

He finally found the courage to talk to her, and he knocked on the oak door timidly.

The tumblers clicked, and he found himself staring into a pair of eyes whose colour would make an ocean jealous.

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><p>He felt like a stupid, foolish teenager in love.<p>

His mouth was agape, and his hands nearly lost grip on the present he was holding. Her flawless smile nearly sent him reeling into yet another cardiac arrest, and he tried to knock his senses back into reality unsuccessfully.

Chelsea invited him in warmly, and he handed her the poorly-wrapped parcel over with flushed cheeks and a shy smile.

"You got me a gift? Oh, you shouldn't have..."

Her smile grew wider when she finally laid eyes on the unwrapped present.

Babbling her thanks, she stepped forward to envelope him into a hug.

Mark nearly ruptured his heart again for the second time that day.

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><p>Mark cleared his throat and rehearsed what he wanted to say to her mentally, while Chelsea busied herself by keeping the chocolate cake in her refrigerator.<p>

"Chelsea... Will you... go out with... me?"

Chelsea turned to him and smiled gently, which nearly made him want to do cartwheels again.

"Sure. Where shall we go?"

Mark groaned inwardly. She hadn't gotten his message.

"Not that kind of going out... I meant that the two of us could go out on a da-"

Much to his embarrassment, he couldn't get the word "date" out, and he stood there trying to convey his message through with frantic hand-gestures and red cheeks.

Chelsea laughed softly –her laughter made him feel even more flustered–, and he frowned in puzzlement.

"Oh Mark, you're even more dense than Vaughn described."

He tilted his head in confusion, and he peered timidly into her ocean eyes, hoping to find his answer.

"We've been dating for a year, silly."

And that was when it hit him.

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><p>All those walks, all those lunches they had each day for the previous year surfaced in his mind. Come to think of it, he had also failed to see the ceasing flirting from the bachelors, who had long moved on from Chelsea, and had begun courting other bachelorettes.<p>

In fact, he could see all the gifts he had given her displayed carefully in her room right at that very moment.

A jug of fresh Jersey Milk rested on the counters of her tiny kitchen; a wilting Blue Magic Flower from last Autumn; an apple from his orchard...

Even though realization had hit him hard, he couldn't stop that large grin from growing on his flushed face.

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><p>"I don't believe this," Chelsea said sighing. "Sabrina told me that I have should have said something about us, but..." She playfully punched him on the arm, grinning as she did so. "I didn't think you'd be even more oblivious than Elliot was about us dating…"<p>

Mark was about to state an indignant retort about how he should not be compared to a pansy like Elliot, when Chelsea leant forward and rested her head on his shoulder. Just with that one, simple action, all thoughts about the pink-haired man and the like dissolved.

Mark's heart began to palpitate as she tilted her head up and gazed into his shy, green eyes.

"But what can I say? You're hopeless, anyway."

Biting back a retort, he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer towards him. Chelsea sighed contentedly, and hugged his arm gently.

"Don't ruin the moment, Chelsea."

A smile appeared on her face as she snuggled closer to him. He resisted the urge to jump up and punch the air in joy, (because firstly, it was embarrassing, and secondly, Chelsea would lose her mini-pillow) and settled for a smile instead.

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><p>Now that he thought of it, Chen <em>did<em> mention that he had a stock of Blue Feathers up in the market recently...

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><p><em>AN:<em>

_Hey guys, this is my very first Harvest Moon Fanfiction! Special thanks to my animals in my game - Harvest Moon Sunshine Islands:_

_Sapphy [short for Sapphire] (my chicken)_

_Pearl (my brown horse)_

_Rald [short for Emerald] (my light brown dog)_

_Blue (my white cat)_

_And an extra special thank you to my lovely beta! You probably had to go through a lot of grammer errors to correct this :D_

_Unfortunately, since this was my very first fanfiction on Harvest Moon, I don't think its really good. Its a little... rushed. However, I do hope to write more of Harvest Moon, but I have a lot of other stories to complete..._

_And, if you are also a great fan of Pokemon, I'm sure you'll also realise that all of my animals are named after the games. Yes... I am a big fan of Pokemon, so if you are one, please do check out my other stories!_

_Thanks for reading!_


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